Another Big Box store gets filled

Wednesday

May 14, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By WILLIAM KEESLER The Dispatch

Another of Lexington's empty Big Box stores has been filled.Family Video has turned the former Big Lots building on South Main Street into a small shopping center, including a large video/DVD/game store and four adjacent retail spaces.The renovation inspired a neighboring store owner to make improvements and has received praise from other nearby business owners on South Main, which is one of Lexington's gateways and is showing some signs of rebirth."They're real glad we've done what we've done," said Ritch Fuller, manager of the new Family Video store, which opened April 24. "Kind of makes you stick your chest out a little."Two years ago the Lexington Area Chamber of Commerce raised concerns about a half-dozen large, empty store buildings in the city, and a year ago the chamber and city government announced a joint effort with ElectriCities, the nonprofit trade organization for municipalities that sell electric power in North Carolina, to develop a marketing plan for the structures.Gradually, the buildings have gained new tenants. In Parkway Plaza, Direct Furniture Factory Outlet opened in the former Wal-Mart space and Tractor Supply moved into the former Ingles grocery. Earlier this spring, the Steve & Barry's retail chain indicated plans to put a clothing store in the former Winn-Dixie grocery on U.S. Highway 64 West.Filling the former Big Lots store on South Main is another important step.Since the late 1960s, the site at the busy South Main-Cotton Grove Road intersection has been used by a series of businesses - a variety store, grocery stores, a dry cleaner, a warehouse. Doug Glosson, the former owner, estimated that Big Lots operated there for eight to 10 years before closing around 1994 and reopening several years later at its current location on Winston Road.But most recently, for four years or so, the building had been vacant and deteriorating.Fuller, an East Davidson High School graduate who lives in Fairgrove, said Springfield, Ill.-based Family Video has spent close to $1 million buying the property and renovating the building, stripping the structure down to its frame and removing everything else. An Illinois construction company built the carpeted, 6,700-square-foot Family Video store with colorful red brick, a green metal roof and awning, and a glass light tower that Family Video traditionally erects outside its stores.Family Video left four adjacent 1,750-square-foot store spaces unfinished inside but will develop them to a tenant's specifications, Fuller said. A 24-hour laundromat is expected to move into the two spaces closest to the video store, which is on the south end of the building.Fuller said he'd like to find a Subway restaurant to move into one of the remaining two spaces on the north end. "We've learned that a small restaurant kind of complements our business," he said.Fuller formerly managed Family Video stores in Thomasville, which has been in the top three among the chain's 570 stores for sales, and Eden. Based on early sales and the similar population in Lexington, he said, "I think it's going to be a busier store than Thomasville."Sam Everhart, owner of the new Daddy Rabbit's firearms and sporting goods store on the edge of Family Video's large parking lot, was so impressed by the color scheme for the new shopping center that he adopted the same one for the exterior of his building - even using the same painter."Those people did a remarkable job on that thing," Everhart said. "I'm kind of glad to ride their coattails and take advantage of it."Mary Phat said she decided to start her new Candy Bouquet store across South Main without knowing of Family Video's renovation plans, but she's ecstatic about the results. Visitors no longer enter the city on that side and see "an eyesore," she said."Isn't it awesome?" she asked. "It's really exciting for Lexington - because we really needed it."Chamber President Radford Thomas also welcomes the change."It's a tremendous improvement on the south end of town - looking at what they've done and knowing what was there before," Thomas said. "It really dresses things up down there."Vacancies still exist in two of the original six targeted buildings - the former Winn-Dixie on East Center Street and the former Southern Family Foods on Lowe's Boulevard.William Keesler can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 221, or at bill.keesler@the-dispatch.com.